Gas and electric bill

[pinkbelle]

Originally Posted by hvasey

The main thing is to understand how much energy you are actually using and being able to work out the cost, then see if you can reduce useage.
A lot of people are going off estimated or ‘average’ useage and being terrified into huge monthly payments.
I’m surprised at being £540 in deficit, companies usually tweak your direct debit so you don’t fall behind too much. Is that for a quarter? A year?
Are you in a fixed tarriff or svr (price cap)?
What is your ACTUAL gas and electric useage in kwh?
For example, my Gas is 7000kwh per year, my electric is 3000.
Standing charges will be approx. £300 come October.
Gas will be £1100 if the price is 15p per kwh
Elec will be £1500ish if 50p per kwh
So a total of £2900 - £400 ‘government handout’ = £2500 / £210 a month.
I’m currently paying £117 a month at today’s price cap rate, it was £75 a month till June and I was £180 in credit after my winter bill so my bills will triple in the space of a year 🙄

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Excellent post, people need to stop thinking in £ and DD’s paid on estimates. You need to know and monitor your actual usage and work out what your cost will be.
You can then decide what if anything you can cut back on to reduce your usage if you need too.
If you haven’t been tracking your usage you can request the data for the last 12 months from your supplier.

[Sew109]

We have looked at solar panels but can’t as in conservation area so not allowed house too old and Leakey for heat pump, had new boiler last year but the only way we get the house warm in the winter is with the log burner and just that room !

[Trusty ian]

Good example, now of teenagers. She switched fan on in living room which is ok and understandable , not got an issue with that, she then gets up and wanders off in to the dining room . That's it. Bet if I go into her bedroom the fan in there will be on there too, and TV etc etc etc.
Edit, just walked into kitchen and oven nicely heating the kitchen while she eats her tea. I'm banging my head against a brick wall here.

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by jenna288

Like everyone, our gas and electric bill is sky high.

Any tips?

We are currently with shell energy and -£546 at the moment! Just upped our payment to £200 a month from £160 but doubt that will be anywhere near as much as it needs to be but I don't see how.anyone can afford to pay £500 a month.. a couple of years ago we were paying £100 a month and that covered it!

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We’re with Shell and we just pay for what we use every month and so far it’s been ok.
I’ve turned the hot water off and just put it on in the morning for about an hour so we have enough hot water for a shower.
I’ve turned all the plug sockets off when we’re not using them I’ve even unplugged the air fresheners
There’s only 2 of us so I only do the washing a couple of times a week and I make sure it’s a full load I’ve also turned it down to 30 degrees.
I only use the dishwasher when we have family around for a meal and there’s a lot of dirty dishes.
The hot tub hasn’t come out of the box this year and we don’t have a dryer.

I do paid surveys and whatever I get which isn’t a huge amount is going into an account towards our energy bills for the winter

There was a lady in our local paper a few weeks ago who doesn’t use her lights at home she has battery operated fairy lights and pays £3.99 for a pack of batteries and says they last 2-3 months so that’s something to think about.

I’ve cut right back on food shopping if we don’t need it I don’t buy it.

I’m dreading the winter and can see us being in bed early watching TV to try and save on the bills.

We’re going to Orlando in October but this has been paid up for 2 years we’ve 1 holiday booked for next year and I can honestly see us cancelling that.

DH is retired but has been working part time 6 hours a day for 4 days but that’s now been cut to 2 days I’ve also had to leave my job due to the toxic environment I’ve got another job but it’s less hours and have to travel 3 times the distance so I’m losing around £120 a week which isn’t great.

I think we’re in for a tough winter

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by Trusty ian

Good example, now of teenagers. She switched fan on in living room which is ok and understandable , not got an issue with that, she then gets up and wanders off in to the dining room . That's it. Bet if I go into her bedroom the fan in there will be on there too, and TV etc etc etc.
Edit, just walked into kitchen and oven nicely heating the kitchen while she eats her tea. I'm banging my head against a brick wall here.

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When ours were teenagers if they did things like that I’d take the fuses out of the plugs

[Loopylooloo]

I am really worried that the elderly will be so scared to use anything they will be dying of cold! Its such a worry.

[hvasey]

I foresee a lot of house fires due to people using candles instead of having lights on, although lights are probably not even 10% of electricity costs and also fires due to people trying to use old fireplaces without having them swept.
Using a microwave rather than an oven will save quite a bit I imagine. Having my electric oven on for an hour costs about 40p currently.
We were away for two days last week and it surprised me that we used 83p in electric on Thursday and 90p on Friday! About 4p an hour, that’s a large A rated fridge freezer, a fish tank heater and filter pump, a clock radio and the clock on the cooker, that’s pretty much it other than boiling the kettle on Thursday morning and some hot water Friday evening.

[mango66]

I tend to cut my oven usage to a max of twice/wk, compared to 4 to 5 times previously. I've noticed a bit of a price drop by doing so.
Using the hob for anything like stir frys etc, towards the end of it being cooked I turn the hob off as you'll find it's still cooking or boiling if doing veg etc.
Like others I switch off plugs while not in use, and when boiling the kettle I switch it off before it does it itself, it all helps.
Only put enough water in to fill amount of mugs required.

[fizzypop]

I was looking at portable solar chargers earlier for phones, iPads etc. Has anyone tried these?

[Puddle5]

We've just bought an Air fryer. Can cook most of the things I would in our oven (electric) but considerably less time, no preheating and lower electric usage. I reckon it will have paid for itself very soon.